76 
of D&mbovija, Prahova and Buzau 1677 wells, of which 1047 in a state ol pro 
duction, 26 petroleum refineries the reservoirs at the oil fields and the 
factories with 8270 tons of oil and of oil derivates, with the whole plant were 
destroyed. 
The riches represented by the petroleum industry was the reflection ot 
the development of our State, and the principal store of energy of our natio 
nal economy, as it was the principal national combustible. Even it immedia 
tely after the war, we would have had the neccessary sums for restoring to work 
ing order all the destroyed oil-fields still it would have required a long time, and 
nobody can say that our national economy did not suffer, more than the da 
mage represented by this destruction, especially if it is considered what sum is 
allowed us for reparation and what sum would be owed to us. (An. 34). 
The production reduced almost to nothing in 1917 only just began to 
rise in 1918 without attaining however 50°/ 0 of what it was before this des 
truction. In 1925 six years after the war and with all the efforts made even 
bv the occupation army of the enemy it has hardly attained the prewar pro 
duction. 
This destruction created a special claim of ours onthe allies, arising as it did 
from a sacrifice made for the common cause. It cannot be included there foie 
in the policy of reparations and of the treaties, but must be taken into con 
sideration when we talk of our rights and obligations both arising from the 
treaties or against the allied States. By its very nature this claim has a pri 
vileged character. 
The central Powers weakening their other fronts, concentrated the 
whole action of their forces against Roumania, and the occupation of Bucarest 
was to be a mirage, which on the one hand would give their subjects the idea 
that the war was soon to finish by the complete rout ot the allies, and on the 
other hand, that they would be able to execute the whole plan which had 
been experimented a long time before in the other countries which had 
fallen under the German occupation And fortunately in 1916 the Rouma 
nian army reduced from the beginning of the war to its proper forces, as 
the Russian army did not arrive except at the monnent of the 
retreat, was obliged to choose, with an aching heart a new point to 
lean upon between Focs-sani and the Danube in the Galatz region (Nomoloasa- 
Focyani). 
The exodus of the retreat during the hard winter 1916 — 1917 are 
exemples of the sacrifiice which we can only explain by the unshakeable 
faith of the nation, that the struggle in which it was engaged could only lead 
it to victory. 
SECTION II 
THE RETREAX TO MOLDAVIA. 
Retired in a corner of the country which represented ^ of the area 
of the territory, the Roumanian State began to reorganize its army placed in